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by Kaleb Cox and Abigail Clawson
The push for equality between men and women is not new, but as the traditional labels for men and women are changing, the role the different genders play in society are currently being challenged in ways never before considered.
“I think stereotypes exist for a reason, but I think they’re frequently wrong,” said NS Family and Consumer Sciences teacher Sterling Whipple. “I think men and women are both pressured by society to be things that they may not want to be.”
Not only the pressure, but the ideal gender covering particular aspects of society leave many feeling out of place when they step outside the norms for gender roles in society.
“[For example,] women are pressured largely by society to be beautiful and are told from day one that if you’re not beautiful you have no value,” Whipple said. “That’s why makeup sells so well, and that’s why there is no market for makeup to men, because that’s not how men have been brainwashed.”
We hear a lot about the portrayal of women by Hollywood and the media as a whole, giving their characteristics of the ideal female, leaving many feeling insignificant and with little value in the world, but it is becoming more common to see women and men living outside the cookie cutter mold shown in the media.
“I think [stereotypes have] blurred a lot since the 70’s,” said English teacher Kate Carney. “I think it’s much more of a you have stay-at-home dads besides stay-at-home moms, but you still have a lot of people who expect working women to then still take care of the entire house…but I think it’s blurring more so it’s not quite so cut and dry, and many more husbands are willing to help take care off kids and help run the house and things like that.”
Societal norms, though becoming gradually more tolerant and accepting, still tend to throw labels on different kinds of people, men and women specifically.
Men often times feel pressured to be the main worker and source of income in homes, as well as many feeling like they have to “man up” when things go south for them.
“I would like to see boys and men feel like they are able to express their feelings and not have to be breadwinners or bring home giant paychecks to be important people,” Whipple said.
The lean towards men as the main source of income for a family is a big factor in the discussion on occupational segregation based on gender and the ever-debated wage gap between men and women. This refers to the tendency for some jobs and industries to be heavily occupied by one gender, and studies show that those jobs occupied by men tend to pay more than those by women.
In Utah, occupational segregation is prevalent. Religion plays a large part on the roles women tend to play in their community, and with nearly 60 percent of the state identifying as members of the LDS faith, beliefs sometimes help to further these expectations.
Mormon culture emphasizes marriage and motherhood, which is reflected in the fact that Utah has the highest marriage rate, earliest age for marriage, second highest fertility rate and the highest average household size.
Despite these statistics, the amount of Utah women in the workforce is still at a similar percentage as those across the nation. However, because many of those women working see their income only as a way to make ends meet for their families, they are not focused on a long term working career.
“I think that that’s part of the reason why teachers make so little in Utah, because women are supposed to stay at home and most of the teachers are women in Utah,” Carney said. “Theirs is a second income, so they’re not going to pay them as much because it’s your second income and you probably shouldn’t be working anyway. But I do know that outside of teaching women tend to make less than men.”
Nationally, the generally accepted number for the pay gap between women and men annually is 80 cents to the dollar. When narrowing it down to per hour or per week, these numbers are a lot closer, but a lot is left out when looking through a smaller scope.
Studies show that there is only a seven percent difference in pay during the first year out of college, but as time goes on, that gap increases. Time spent off for things like motherhood put women at a disadvantage as they can lose job experience that their male counterparts wouldn’t, as well as not receiving promotions within the workplace as quickly or frequently.
“Sometimes [women are paid less] because they take time off to have children,” Carney said, “and so then when they come back they’ve lost maybe a couple years of experience or they’ve gone to half-time. But if they’re doing the exact same job then they should be getting paid, in my mind, the exact same amount of money.”
It’s hard to know where to begin when finding ways to fix this issue. From an education standpoint, many suggest starting with encouraging women to finish their education, specifically with a bachelor’s degree or higher. Most women tend to work for a large parts of their lives, and even if they don’t, it’s good to have that education if the need ever arises.
But what happens at work is but one of the several stereotypes and discriminations that can occur with gender.
As the typical roles are being challenged, questions arise as transgender people take their place in society. While this is a highly controversial topic with many possible outcomes,
“If there is a right and wrong to [the transgender issue], I have don’t know where it is,” Whipple said. “I think, my straight up opinion regarding the transgender issue is, “Can we all just be nice to each other?” There’s so much hatred attached to it and rejection. Can we all just be nice to each other?”
The idea of being considerate of another person is not only true for transgender people, but of all people working towards something, whether to provide for a family or to work with something they are passionate about. If this is what someone is doing, why should they be looked down on or have a tougher go of it because of their gender?
“My motto for many aspects of reality is you do you,” Whipple said. “If there’s a girl out there who wants to be a computer programmer or a astrophysicist or whatever, you do you, knock yourself out, go be excellent at it. If there’s a guy out there who wants to be a stay-at-home father, you do you, knock yourself out, be excellent at it. Life’s too short to spend your time worrying about what other people think.”
